


Hand Delivered

by badly_knitted



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alive Ianto Jones, Alternate Universe - Future, Brother-Sister Relationships, Established Relationship, Family, Fix-It, Fluff, Future Fic, Ianto's Family, Immortal Ianto Jones, Immortals, Letters, M/M, Married Couple, Post-Series 03 AU: Children of Earth (Torchwood), Romance, Series 03 Fix-It: Children of Earth (Torchwood)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23216662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badly_knitted/pseuds/badly_knitted
Summary: Several months after Ianto’s ‘death’, Rhiannon receives a letter from her brother, hand-delivered by his husband.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 14
Kudos: 156





	Hand Delivered

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Challenge 7: Letter at slashficlets. 
> 
> Set in my ‘Through Time and Space’ ‘verse.

Dear Rhi, 

I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened, and I wish I didn’t have to contact you this way but I don’t seem to have any other choice. 

Jack is delivering this letter for me because I can’t. Not because I don’t want to but because I literally, physically can’t. It’s hard to explain, maybe even impossible, I’m not sure I understand it myself, but there’s something, a barrier of some kind, that won’t allow me to approach earth any closer than the moon, not within a hundred and thirteen years of my death. 

Yes, you read that correctly, I died; it wasn’t a trick, or disinformation. I was dead, but I came back; I’m alive and I’m perfectly fine. Apparently I’m like Jack now; he’s been doing the not staying dead thing for over a century already. He’ll explain, or at least try to. I imagine this is all a bit difficult for you to take in, especially since you were at my memorial a few months back. Well, I assume you were. The Queen told me all of the people who died at Thames House were cremated for safety’s sake.

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is the same Jack I told you about at the start of the whole thing with the kids chanting, the one your friend Susan saw me having dinner with. As you can see, she wasn’t exaggerating, he could have been a film star, just don’t tell that; it’ll go straight to his head and that’s already big enough. I’d hoped one day I’d get the chance to introduce him to you, but he’ll have to do that himself. Not that he’ll have any problem with that. 

Oh, and before I forget, we’re married now. Wish I could have invited you, but we had the wedding on another planet in the future. I know, sorry, still confuses me a bit too. I have a spaceship that can travel in time, so I get about a bit. It was a lovely wedding, very traditional, just not earth traditional.

Anyway, I’m getting off track. For whatever reason, I can’t return to earth in your lifetime, the barrier won’t let me; it’s probably for the best anyway, my presence might alter history, and that’s never a good thing. Jack’s not affected though, so he can visit in my place, bring you letters and gifts, help us stay in touch. There’s a possibility he might be able to bring you out here to visit, we’re not entirely sure yet, but we’ll have to get some kind of shuttlecraft first; it would be a much more comfortable mode of travel than the teleportation device he’s using at the moment. That’s only designed to transport one person; it’s a bit rough on passengers.

I hope you, Johnny and the kids are all okay. Just so you know, you should be getting a letter from the bank in a couple of months, containing a key to a safety deposit box. I had to jump back in time to set that up. I’ve made sure you’ll all be well provided for. I don’t need the money; it’s not legal currency beyond earth anyway. Strictly speaking, Jack’s crossing his own timeline by delivering this letter so soon after my death, but his earlier self is currently in Australia so it’s safe enough. I just couldn’t bear the thought of you having to wait for six months before finding out that I’m okay.

I’m sorry, for so many things. Just know I love and miss you all, even Johnny. When he’s not being a twat.

Love, your not so little brother, Ianto xxx

Rhiannon set the letter aside and wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand. The man who’d delivered it, Jack, offered her his handkerchief but she shook her head, reaching for a box of tissues instead.

“Is all that…” She gestured towards the letter. “Is it true?” She wanted to believe it, she’d had a dream a while back where she talked with her brother and he told her he was alive and fine; it had seemed so real and she’d desperately wanted to believe it. The kids had dreamed of their uncle too, insisting they’d met him on another planet, but…

“It’s true, all of it,” Jack assured her. “Believe me, when Ianto found me again I had trouble believing he was real and alive, I thought it had to be a dream. Took him a while to convince me he wasn’t a figment of my imagination.”

“My brother’s really alive, and the two of you are married?”

Jack’s smile was wider and whiter than any Rhiannon had ever seen; Susan was right, he could have been a Hollywood star, what with the American accent.

“Oh yeah, you should’ve been there. Best day of my life! What a celebration it was!” His smile softened. “Hopefully next time we get hitched you and your family will be there too.”

“Next time?” Now Rhi was confused.

“Lots of planets out there, we want to make sure we’re legally married on all of them. I hope we never stop wanting to celebrate our love for each other, right to the end of time.” Jack turned serious then. “You do understand Ianto’s immortal now, don’t you? Like me he can die, but he doesn’t stay dead. I don’t know whether we’ll age or not, but either way, we’re going to be around for millions of years.”

That was impossible for Rhiannon to get her head around. “But what will you do?”

Jack shrugged. “Travel, explore, help people in need, hopefully raise kids of our own. They won’t inherit our immortality though. They’ll age and die.”

“That sounds a lonely way to live.”

“It won’t be, not as long as we have each other, and we always will.”

“I’m glad. I just wish I could see Ianto.”

“We’re working on that.”

“Take care of him for me?”

Jack smiled. “Always.”

The End


End file.
